School Admission Appeals

Refused a place at Saint Cecilia's Church of England School?

You are not alone. In 2026/27, 72 families who named Saint Cecilia's Church of England School as their first choice did not get a place: the school offered 177 and 205 put it first.

Below: what an appeal in Wandsworth actually involves, and how contested this school has been over 12 years of official figures.

1.16

first choices for every place available

205 first preferences for 177 places, 2026/27

Appealing a refusal at Saint Cecilia's Church of England School

There is no published appeal success rate for Saint Cecilia's Church of England School, or for any individual school in England. The Department for Education collects appeal outcomes and publishes them by council. The figures here are for Wandsworth as a whole and cover every state-funded school in the authority. Anyone quoting you odds for a named school is making them up.

Across Wandsworth, 6.6% of secondary appeals heard were upheld — 16 of 241 appeals heard in 2024–2026. The England figure is 20.1%.

A panel is not deciding whether you want the school. It decides whether the admission arrangements were lawful and correctly applied, and then whether the harm to your child of not being admitted outweighs the harm to the school of going over its published number. Cases built on preference rather than on those two questions are the ones that fail.

See the full appeal figures for Wandsworth.

What a panel here can act on

These are national rules, not Wandsworth ones. Whichever school you are appealing for, the panel works through the same two stages and is required to ignore the same things.

How contested this school has been

Saint Cecilia's Church of England School turned first-choice families away in every one of the 12 years published. More families named it first than it had places in 9 of those years. In the other 3 it had places on paper and still turned first-choice families away — which happens where families who may not meet a school's criteria rank it below a safer choice — common at selective, faith and single-sex schools, and it means the first-preference count understates how wanted the school is.

First preferences per place at Saint Cecilia's Church of England School, 2015/16 to 2026/27. A value above 1 means more families named the school first than there were places. 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 one first preference per place 15/16 17/18 19/20 21/22 23/24 25/26 26/27 2015/16 1 per place 144 first choices 144 places 2016/17 0.99 per place 143 first choices 145 places 2017/18 1.3 per place 214 first choices 165 places 2018/19 1.75 per place 272 first choices 155 places 2019/20 1.3 per place 208 first choices 160 places 2020/21 1.25 per place 202 first choices 162 places 2021/22 0.96 per place 173 first choices 181 places 2022/23 1.07 per place 197 first choices 184 places 2023/24 1.28 per place 233 first choices 182 places 2024/25 1.31 per place 235 first choices 180 places 2025/26 1.12 per place 198 first choices 176 places 2026/27 1.16 per place 205 first choices 177 places
First preferences per place at Saint Cecilia's Church of England School. Years with too small an intake to carry a ratio are left blank rather than plotted. Latest year: 205 first preferences for 177 places.
View as a table
Places, first preferences and offers at Saint Cecilia's Church of England School, by year. A ratio is shown only where the intake is large enough to carry one.
Year Places First choices Offered Per place
2015/16 144 144 96 1
2016/17 145 143 83 0.99
2017/18 165 214 120 1.3
2018/19 155 272 112 1.75
2019/20 160 208 116 1.3
2020/21 162 202 123 1.25
2021/22 181 173 125 0.96
2022/23 184 197 143 1.07
2023/24 182 233 141 1.28
2024/25 180 235 150 1.31
2025/26 176 198 133 1.12
2026/27 177 205 133 1.16

Places offered

177

in 2026/27

Named first choice

205

992 named it at any preference

First choices offered a place

64.9%

133 of 205

Offers to families outside the council

30%

53 of 177 offers

This school was issued a new Department for Education reference when it converted to an academy. Its earlier years are included above, reported at the time under reference 132173.

Was the school full?

This is the question a panel spends most of its time on. At the second stage of an appeal it weighs the harm to the school of taking an extra child against the harm to your child of being refused — and how much room the school has is the heart of that. The admission authority has to show harm over and above the fact that its published number has been reached, so it is fair to ask what the specific harm is — how the second stage actually works.

Places, Years 7 to 11

900

2024/25, whole school

Pupils in them

891

99% of capacity

Unfilled places

9

across Years 7 to 11

Sixth form places

223

excluded from the figures above

Read this before you use these numbers

These are whole-school figures across Years 7 to 11, not the year group you are appealing for. A school can hold spare places in its upper years while the year you want is genuinely full, and the panel will have the year-group numbers in front of it. So this does not show that Saint Cecilia's Church of England School has room for your child.

They are also the school's own reported capacity, as at 1 May 2025 — a year behind the application figures further up this page, and a description rather than a finding.

On the published figures Saint Cecilia's Church of England School reported 9 unfilled places across Years 7 to 11, at 99% of capacity. That is worth asking about — but ask it as a question, not an assertion. A panel will want the figure for the year group in question, and the school may have a good answer about staffing, rooms or timetabling.

Places and pupils on roll, whole school, 2009/10 to 2024/25

Places Pupils on roll

Places and pupils on roll at Saint Cecilia's Church of England School from 2009/10 to 2024/25. Where the roll meets the places line, the school is full. 0 600 1,200 places on roll 09/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 20/21 22/23 24/25 2009/10 903 places 890 on roll 2010/11 918 places 905 on roll 2011/12 930 places 917 on roll 2012/13 930 places 920 on roll 2013/14 930 places 928 on roll 2014/15 950 places 948 on roll 2015/16 950 places 917 on roll 2016/17 950 places 925 on roll 2017/18 1,000 places 921 on roll 2018/19 1,000 places 918 on roll 2020/21 1,000 places 962 on roll 2021/22 1,150 places 996 on roll 2022/23 1,150 places 1,032 on roll 2023/24 1,123 places 1,079 on roll 2024/25 1,123 places 1,108 on roll
Whole-school figures including any sixth form, as at 1 May each year. 2019/20 is missing because the 2020 School Capacity survey was cancelled.

Department for Education, School capacity, school-level file, 2024/25. Published under the Open Government Licence.

What these figures do not tell you

About the school

Type
Academy converter
Admissions policy
Non-selective
Religious character
Faith
Entry point
Year 7
Council
Wandsworth

Postcode SW18 5JR. School details from Get Information About Schools (URN 141808).

Other contested secondary schools in Wandsworth

Applications and offers: Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers, school-level file, 2026/27. Appeal figures: Admission appeals in England. Both under the Open Government Licence.